At this stage of the game, the biggest question mark surrounding Roland Emmerich's Independence Day sequel is whether or not Will Smith will come back to reprise his role as Captain Steven Hiller. It was originally believed that the star would not be back, as his paycheck would be too large for the production's budget to handle, but recently the director suggested that Smith could return after all. It's a major issue that the production has to navigate around, as a sequel featuring Smith character would presumably be very different than one that didn't. So how are they working around that problem? Emmerich is having two scripts written.
Promoting the upcoming release of White House Down on Blu-ray and DVD, the director sat down with The Playlist and revealed that Independence Day 2 is working to cover all of their bases by developing two different versions of the script, one presumably centering on Captain Hiller and the other focusing on different characters (possibly Hiller's stepson or Bill Pullman's President Thomas J. Whitmore. James Vanderbilt, who worked with Emmerich on White House Down, has penned both screenplays, and, optimistically, the director said in the interview that "It's looking good [for the version with Smith]."
While that may be true, it sounds like the production is still experiencing some major difficulties. Just last month Emmerich was quoted saying that there's a possibility that the movie won't be ready in time to make its scheduled July 3, 2015 release date, and that they were still trying to get the script right. In this most recent interview the director says that making the sequel has been "a daily battle" and that while he remains positive he's constantly finding issues with "The budget, the schedules, [and] the actors."
According to previous reports, the sequel will be set about 20 years after the first movie and will be set in a world has been drastically altered as a result of the alien invasion. Humanity begins to make advancements in technology based on the stuff left behind by the invaders. Unfortunately, right before the aliens were destroyed in the first film they managed to send out a distress signal to their home planet, and after traveling through wormholes in space, the cavalry finally arrives.
If it comes down to it, would you be interested in seeing a Will Smith-less Independence Day sequel or would you prefer that they not make it at all? Answer our poll and tell us what you're thinking in the comments below.
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